thomass
Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing
Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington",
published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.
S. L. THOMAS resides eight and
one-half miles east from Hatton, where he is engaged in farming, his principal
crop being wheat. He was born in Kent county, Michigan, August 28,
1859, the son of Johnathan and Caroline (Thomas) Thomas.
His early education was gained in the common
schools of his native state. In 1873, when fifteen years of age,
he started across the plains and succeeded in reaching the state of California,
where he worked on a farm fifteen years. He then came to Washington
and filed on a homestead where he now lives. He has continued to
add to his holdings in real estate until he now owns in all five thousand
acres of agricultural land, upon which he has one of the finest water systems
to be found in Adams county. This water system consists of four good
wells and two gasoline engines with which to elevate the water into tanks,
whence it is piped in every direction over the farm. He has a splendid
fourteen-room residence, completely modern in every particular, even to
the telephone, and he also has two immense horse barns, holding fifty head
of horses. His granary is known far and wide from the fact that,
not only it is an unusually large one, but that in its cupola is contained
a large four-faced clock, visible for more than a quarter of a mile.
His farm improvements also include a blacksmith and harness shop, three
chicken houses, two large implement houses, and all necessary out buildings
for the estate, making it, all things considered, perhaps the best improved
farm in Adams county.
Every mechanical appliance that could be utilized
on a first-class Washington wheat farm, is found on Mr. Thomas' place.
Among the equipment may be mentioned two combined harvesters, one operated
by thirty-two horses and the other by a fifty horse power engine.
Each machine is capable of harvesting and delivering in the sack seventy-five
acres of wheat daily. The latest gang disc plows are used in stirring
the soil and the large traction engine mentioned is utilized during the
plowing season and this outfit can turn over sixty acres in one day.
These splendid machines may be seen in cuts in other portions of this work.
Also there is a cut of Mr. Thomas' home with some of the other buildings,
but the place is so mammoth that a cut cannot do justice to the magnificent
improvements on this domain.
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